While most of us don’t think about fighting plaque psoriasis unless we actually have it, for some people, it’s a huge problem. That’s what sent healthcare stock Protagonist Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTGX) jumping in Tuesday afternoon’s trading. Protagonist closed over 52% higher, and it’s thanks to a new advance it engineered along with Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ).
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The new treatment developed, JNJ-2113, just went through Phase 2 testing, and it came out the other side comparatively unscathed as it reached its main goal. JNJ-2113 was designed for individuals with “moderate to severe” plaque psoriasis and worked quite well. All five groups involved in the testing saw a 75% improvement in skin lesions at week 16.
Better yet, as far as adverse events went, they were about the same between the test group and a placebo, which suggests very little. These results are about the best Protagonist could have asked for, and heading on to Phase 3 testing should just be a matter of time. Given that JNJ-2113 is the only one of its type out there, it will almost certainly have a first-mover advantage when it goes live and is available for consumption. That, in turn, will likely give Protagonist a nice open market to work with and be a virtual monopoly for a while since no other candidates exist.
Analysts like the look of Protagonist right now, though, and are strongly in favor of it. Protagonist stock is currently ranked a Strong Buy according to analyst consensus. Further, since Protagonist has an average target price of $30.25, that gives it 32.15% upside potential.
